International Shia News Agency

Time

SHAFAQNA-The world experienced a great leap in science when Einstein proposed his theories of Special and General Relativity. For about 200 years physics depended on Newtonian laws. It was thought then that time was constant; an hour is the same all over, under any conditions.

Understanding of time soon changed, and time was different ever since.

Let’s view the way Newton thought of time. It was said that time can be related to the running of water in a river. Should the speed of the water be measured at any point, it would yield equal results. The same was thought of time; if time was measured at any point in the universe it would be the same.

Suppose George and Bill synchronised their watches. George left on a super fast spaceship, and came back an hour later (according to his own watch). Newton would say that Bill would have waited an hour for George to come back, and their watches would read the same time.

Einstein disagrees! According to his theories, time is relative, and it depends on the speed at which one travels. Suppose that George left earth on the same spaceship at 1:00 p.m. travelling at a speed close to that of light, and suppose that Bill was in some way was looking at George’s watch. Bill would realise that George’s watch is advancing very slowly compared with his. So if Bill’s watch said 2:00 p.m. then George’s watch would have said 1:05 p.m. for example. On the other hand, George would see that Bill was acting a bit strange; he would see him doing everything pretty fast, as if he was in a movie that was being fast forwarded.

Strange indeed! This time difference applies to everything surrounding both George and Bill. If George returns one year later (according to his own time), he would find out that Bill aged 12 years. Not only this, but both George and Bill, separately, feel normal; George does not feel that his life was moving any faster than normal, nor does Bill feel that his life was moving any slower than normal.

Scientists used a Muon (a particle smaller in size than an atom) to prove the idea of time relativity. A Muon lives for about 2.2 microseconds, after which it changes into an electron. This short life, is measured for a Muon at rest. When a Muon is travelling, on the other hand, at speeds very close to the speed of light, it was noticed that it lived 30 times longer than it did when it was at rest. It was the same with George and Bill. Bill noticed that George’s life was prolonged. There were other tests that scientists conducted that proved this theory correct, and they can be found in physics books all over.

Einstein discovered this idea in 1921, but before this discovery by about 1330 years, God, in His Holy book (The Holy Qur’an), mentioned the idea of relativity in clear terms. It was not understood until God revealed the same idea to one of his creatures in a mathematical form. God says in the Holy Qur’an:

“He will plan His ordinance from the heaven unto the earth, then will it go up to Him in a day the duration of which is a thousand years according as you reckon.” (32:5)

Also,

“The angels and the Spirit ascend to Him in a day, the measure of which is fifty thousand years.” (70:4)

Notice that the first mentioned verse offers four phrases and words that constitute the heart of the special theory of relativity, and they are: “go up,” “a day,” “a thousand years,” and “according as you reckon.” The verse indicates that God’s ordinance is moving upwards, and that it’s not static. Then it tells us that one day equals our understanding of 1000 years. When these orders leave earth upwards they experience one day of travel themselves, but 1000 years would have passed by us before the orders reach their destination. That is to say, if you were travelling in a spaceship alongside these orders and looked at your watch when you reached the target you would have experienced one day of travel, but look out the spaceship’s window, and you’d see generations and generations had passed on earth. If you had left your kids on earth, then you would have become a grand grand grand grand? father.

The second verse shows that the angels and the spirit ascend into the heavens in a day equal to fifty thousand years. How could there be a day that is equal to 1000 years, and another that is equal to 50,000 years? is this reasonable? Absolutely! Time is relative, and it depends on the speed of moving objects relative to each other. The faster the object the larger the time difference. Which means that the angels and the spirit are faster than the orders in their ascensions.

If we try to calculate the speed of the angels using the equation Einstein developed we would find out that we need a calculator that operates with a large number of decimal points. I have tried to calculate their speed once, but I couldn’t. The computer I am currently using is not precise enough, and I couldn’t get enough decimal points. The reason for this is because the speed of angels is very close to the speed of light. (You can find these equations in books of physics. They are not hard to find!)

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